Heathens
by b0otywurk
Summary: The Winter Soldier is a dangerous man with an equally dangerous plan: to send HYDRA and its members back to the decrepit pits of hell in which they crawled out of, even if it's the last thing he does. Slight AU/BuckyxOC
1. Chapter 1

The underground room was cold, dark, and sterile. A group of scientists in white lab coats stood in a circle around the large cylindrical tank, filled with amniotic fluid, that dominated the middle of the room. A cylindrical container that was currently the home to a woman, kept permanently frozen in a state of unconsciousness with her vitals projected on various screens and monitors throughout the room for the world to see. She floated in the tank, a tube dispensing oxygen shoved down her throat. Naked, hair swirling slowly in the fluid, face obscured. The container was glowing due to the multitude of lights scattered throughout its surface, pulsating to the beat of her heart, steady and sure, yet undeniably ominous when compared to the overall silence of the room.

"Subject is stable." One scientist said, keenly observing her.

"Vitals are good." Another one said, diverting his attention between the clipboard in his hands and the woman in the tank.

"Excellent." another voice said, this time coming from an elderly man dressed sharply in a silk suit. "Drain the tank and let her out. Time for us to see what she can do."

One scientist walked towards the tank and jabbed a large red button on its side. A loud buzzing was heard throughout the room, followed by gurgling as the tank began to simultaneously drain itself of the fluid and lower its walls. The tank emptied itself completely, and the woman fell to the ground. Hard. Unresponsive. They waited with baited breath.

She remained there for a few moments, and the scientists began speaking once more.

"Abnormal," one said.

"The Asset came out ready to fight..." said another, "We could barely control him."

"Perhaps these trials shouldn't have been conducted on a woman," the scientist who had pushed the red button said, pushing his black-framed glasses up his nose. "Pierce, what do yo-"

He didn't finish his sentence. The woman on the floor had regained consciousness, as if an electric shock had coursed through her body. Ripping the oxygen tube from her throat, she lunged at the bespectacled scientist next to her, slamming into him and sending him flying across the floor and into a concrete wall. He crumpled to the ground, blood dripping from every orifice . Before anyone else in the room had registered what happened, she was on her feet, spitting wisps of dark hair out of her mouth, eyes darting around wildly. Another scientist reached out towards her and the slight movement seemed to set her off as she charged towards him, lightning fast, wrapping her hands around his throat and effectively crushing his windpipe.

There was commotion.

" _Sedate her, imbeciles!"_ Alexander Pierce roared, watching the woman in front of him destroy yet another one of his men.

One of the three remaining scientists fumbled in the pocket of his lab coat and retrieved a large syringe. Bravely, he darted towards her, only to be violently slapped away.

"S-she's like… she's like _him_ , sir!" A scientist cried, backing away from her, "Only faster!"

Pierce watched her, his mouth set in a hard line. Finally, he strode forward himself, right into the woman's path, reaching out a daring hand to grip a large handful of her hair. He ignored her screech of pain as he beckoned to the remaining scientists in the room, signalling for them to grab her arms. As she was restrained, he used his free hand to reach into another scientist's pocket, coming up with yet another syringe, pleased to note that they had followed his instructions and equipped themselves with a syringe full of sedative each. Using his teeth to rip off the protective cover laying over the needle, he jammed it into the side of her neck, and pushed down on the plunger, dispensing three times the normal amount required for a regular female of her size. Her struggling ceased, and all was quiet.

"But not stronger." Pierce said grimly.

* * *

She had been reborn in fire and ice. The pathetic imitation of a mother's womb had failed, not even coming close to what she had supposed the warmth and security of a legitimate one would be. Her rebirth had been sterile and miserable; an eternity suspended in frigid fluid, only to be quite literally dumped on a hard, unyielding floor. When she had opened her eyes for the first time and actually _looked_ down at the floor, a word had popped into her head.

 _Tile._

She had known the floor was tile, and she had known what tile was, but if one were to ask her how she knew what tile was, she wouldn't be able to answer them. And that thought in it of itself sent a feeling burning its way throughout her brain and coursing through her veins. A familiar feeling. One that she knew as _fear_. Who was she? What was she?

Perhaps it was that fear that possessed her as she laid eyes on the large group of men wearing lab coats that surrounded her as if she were an animal in a zoo. Perhaps it was that fear that prompted her to attack.

She moved with ease and speed that even she knew was unnatural. There was something in her throat causing her immense pain, and she ripped it out, giving herself instant relief. Cold, clean oxygen flooded through her body, and she filled to the brim with a sense of lightness and clarity.

The breath of life.

She sent the first man flying into the wall. She crushed the windpipe of the second. The third's neck snapped under her grip, but none of these feats were effortless in the least bit. She could hear voices yelling words she didn't care about enough to understand.

She remembered what the men in the white coats were called now.

Another man was violently slapped away. She felt a brief feeling of disdain for doctors and scientists of any kind, but once again, just like the tile, didn't remember why.

Pain exploded in the back of her head. Brutal, unyielding pain. Another man, this one dressed differently than the others, had grabbed a large handful of her hair by pure luck, and was refusing to let go. She let out an animalistic sound of pain. Before she could react physically, there were more men, gripping her arms, holding them behind her back. She struggled violently, but their combined efforts were stronger than she would ever be.

A prick in her neck, so slight she should barely have been able to feel it. But she felt everything now.

Foreign liquid blazing its way throughout her veins. Painful. Hot.

The world went black.

* * *

 **a/n: rating subject to change, will be slightly AU, updates will be sporadic, and reviews literally keep me going. I hope you enjoyed it.**


	2. Chapter 2

She was aware of two things when she regained consciousness. One, she had been placed in a room made entirely of concrete, and two, there was a large, metal band strapped around her hips, completely securing her to the flimsy cot she was laying on. She worked her way up into a half-sitting position, propped up on her elbows, taking advantage of the slight mobility the restraining band had allowed her. Someone had clothed her in black pants and a tank top. She surveyed the room. No door that she could detect. No windows either. There was a single fluorescent light flickering in the ceiling.

She sighed, frowning.

Her head hurt.

Her _everything_ hurt.

Suddenly, there was a loud grating sound, and a portion of the wall slid open, allowing a man to walk through. She recognized him as the same man who had grabbed her hair earlier, and her lips parted in a snarl.

He chuckled, infuriating her.

"No, no, none of that." he said condescendingly. "I'd hate to sedate you again."

She spoke, her voice cracking and sounding like it hadn't been used in years.

"Who the hell are you?"

He sat on the end of her cot and she recoiled, only to be reprimanded by the restraining band. He smiled mockingly.

"The more appropriate question is who are you?"

Her frown deepened as she wracked her brain, trying to come up with an answer. A sharp pain jolted through her head the harder thought, further increasing her levels of frustration. Finally, as the pain reached a level that was almost unbearable, she spoke weakly.

"I… I don't know…"

She wanted to pummel the man until he lost the smug look that adorned his face after her response.

"My name is Alexander Pierce," he said, his gray eyes boring down into hers. "Welcome to HYDRA, Subject 19."

Without waiting for her response, he began to speak again.

"For the past century, HYDRA has been developing a serum intended to boost the physical and mental capabilities of average humans. Throughout the years, we've witnessed spectacular results, but only on males. Until recently, all our clinical trials on women have failed, ending in a zero-percent success rate. Ending in death. The female body was too weak to withstand the intense changes to the DNA that the serum causes. Or so we thought, until you came along."

Confusion ruled her features.

"I don't…"

Pierce folded his hands in his lap before continuing.

"HYDRA doesn't understand why the serum worked on you and we intend to figure out why. As of right now, you are an invaluable asset to us."

Subject 19 swallowed hard, feeling as if there was a knife in her throat.

"Maybe you just got lucky."

"Perhaps. Or perhaps there is something unique regarding your genetic makeup. Either way, it will be studied."

"I'm not a lab rat!" she cried angrily, trying to sit up, but once again being stopped by the restraining band, "Oh, for the love of… _fuck_ this thing!" Subject 19 slammed her fists down on the metal band.

Pierce watched her struggle with a smirk on his face.

"You don't know what you are. And as for the restraint, it will be removed if you behave, _my dear_."

She began to panic fully, hating the way he had addressed her.

"Let me go- please! I want to go!" she begged.

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

" _Please!_ " she choked out, feeling a sob threaten to tear at her throat.

Alexander Pierce shook his head in a, tsk-tsk-tsk way, and stood, turning to leave as the wall slid open once more, but not before addressing her once more, putting a volume of threats and promises of terror behind one word.

" _Behave_."

* * *

Apparently, HYDRA's ideas of, "studying," Subject 19 included subjecting her to vigorous tests, such as making her run for hours on end with electrodes stuck all over her body in order to measure her speed, heart rate, and other vital functions, lifting inordinate amounts of weight, (which she ultimately failed at), and other things, such as testing her mental aptitude and psychological strength. The tests were unpleasant and invasive, but ultimately, 19 decided that she could probably have it worse. Every day was the same routine. Wake up at around five a.m., shower, dress, report to the science labs in for testing by five forty-five, run tests until noon, short lunch break, more tests until eight p.m., return to her holding cell for dinner, battle insomnia, and then, if she was lucky, sleep.

By the third week, she was too tired to struggle. She supposed that was HYDRA's sick way of controlling her- deprive her of sleep until she was too fatigued to fight back.

She behaved, but whether it was out of choice or necessity, she wasn't sure.

Her situation wasn't ideal by any means, but it would've been fine. Completely and utterly fine, if not _bearable_ if HYDRA hadn't decided to pitch her a curveball. And they didn't just pitch her the curveball, no. They threw it towards her head at 900 miles per hour, laughing the entire time.

It was time for her to begin combat training.

* * *

 **a/n: R.I.P Subject 19. I know it's really slow for now, but it'll pick up! I promise.**


	3. Chapter 3

The Winter Soldier watched the new recruit walk into the training room with a calculating look in his stormy blue eyes. He noticed a few things during his observation. One, she had been born a woman. That was her first mistake. And two, she was trying her hardest to remain unnoticed. Unfortunately for her, a feat like that was impossible with being the only female in a room full of males. A lone fly volunteering its time in a spider's web. She walked behind Alexander Pierce himself, with her chin held high, yet her expression blank. As the other recruits in the room spotted Pierce, they immediately ceased all action, snapping to attention, while the Soldier remained relaxed, observing from the shadows.

She stood, fidgeting and squirming under the gazes and leers of the other men in the room. The Soldier understood why she was uncomfortable. The men's loyalty to HYDRA and Pierce didn't do much to tame their savage and unpredictable natures, it only further exemplified and exposed them. They didn't have the decency to hide their twisted interests in her. Some of them hadn't had contact with a female in years.

He could feel the distress rolling off of her in waves.

However, he didn't notice any other signs of pre-existing abuse. Her clothes were clean, and while she looked exhausted, he didn't sense that she had been through any torture or traumatizing ordeals.

Either her spirit had been crushed, or she was feigning cooperation to save her own neck.

He hoped for the latter.

Alexander Pierce began speaking, droning on and on about HYDRA's success. Long ago, Pierce had drilled into everyone's head that they were on the winning side, that victory was right around the corner.

The Soldier wanted to believe that it was bullshit, but after witnessing firsthand the atrocities HYDRA carried out without remorse, he knew it was true.

HYDRA had the tesseract. HYDRA had the power. HYDRA knew the cards that the Universe had so cruelly dealt, and HYDRA had the winning hand.

The Soldier's eyes remained fixed on her as Pierce spoke, watching her shift her weight from side to side as he blabbed endlessly about the importance of training new recruits, unity as a whole, and other monotonous bullshit.

The Soldier thought that he should be fully focused on the words spewing out of Pierce's mouth or else he would leave the training room with as little information as he had entered it with.

If he didn't want the world to end in flames and chaos, he needed to start paying attention when Pierce spoke.

How was he supposed to send HYDRA back to the pits of hell where it came from if he didn't know what they were planning?

Headfuck.

He didn't remember when he started despising HYDRA. Maybe it was after the third time they had subjected his brain to electric shocks in order to wipe his memory and turn him into a ruthless killing machine. Or the fifth time, or the twelfth time. HYDRA was convinced that he was just a tool. A lethal puppet of sorts, incapable of independent thought.

They were dead wrong.

He'd taken his punishments. Learned to project a facade of loyalty and devotion. He'd stopped fighting back, but by no means was his spirit broken. It had taken a long time, but he'd learned to shut up, to not ask questions, to do as he had been told without hesitation.

The electric shocks had stopped. He'd been given some freedom, some leeway. The Soldier still didn't know his name, who he was, nor where he'd come from, but he knew that he was better off than he had been when HYDRA first found him.

Instead of fighting back, he'd started planning.

It was either the tesseract or HYDRA. One of the two had to be destroyed beyond repair.

He picked HYDRA. Large groups of people were easier to destroy than alien technology, he thought.

He was rudely jerked from his thoughts by Pierce directly addressing him.

"Soldier."

The Soldier snapped to attention like the rest of the men in the training room, looking Pierce in the eye as he did so.

"Yes, sir." He said evenly.

"I am placing the responsibility of Subject 19's training in your hands. Teach her to fight as you fight, to kill as you kill.I want her working with you every single day, you understand? Do not go easy on her."

The Soldier looked at the woman again, sizing her up. She was an extremely menacing height of about five feet and three inches, reasonably toned, yet still rather petite, probably didn't tip the scale at 115 pounds when soaking wet. If he were to evaluate her on appearances alone, she was probably still in her mid to late twenties, but he considered himself to be a poor judge of that, due to the fact that he couldn't remember the last time he himself had aged.

And she looked _terrified_ of him.

Maybe it was the metal arm.

He groaned inwardly, yet kept his countenance composed.

"Yes, sir."

Pierce devoted his attention to everyone in the room as he continued speaking.

"With this new success in HYDRA's clinical serum trials, the future is looking increasingly bright! We will be unconquerable! Stand in unity with me, brothers! _Hail HYDRA_!"

Everyone in the room responded to Pierce with equal verve except for two people.

This woman was either going to be a complete and utter wild card, or his own personal trump card.

* * *

She never had visitors, so one could imagine the surprise when her cell door-wall slid open that very next morning and she saw the same dark haired man with the metal arm from last night's meeting standing in the doorway, dressed simply in black pants, combat boots, and a tank top similar to her own.

Oh, right. Her new trainer.

Peachy.

She sat up in bed, thanking whatever metaphysical deities that were listening that the restraining bar had long since been removed. She'd barely had a chance to look at him again before he spoke.

"Come on."

His voice was a low rumble, fitting his appearance perfectly.

She stood, and began to follow him out of her cell and down the hallway. HYDRA rarely let her out to wander, so the only route she knew within the entire facility was the one that would lead her to the science labs. This was not the route she was currently taking. He was quite a bit taller than her and walked quickly, causing her to almost have to trot to keep up with him, leaving no time for her to take in the new surroundings.

He led her down a maze of identical hallways, stopping when he reached a metal door with the words, "Training Room 1," stamped on it in large black letters. He stopped suddenly and if not for her new scientifically enhanced reflexes, would probably have caused her to collide with his back. She was thankful she didn't. She pictured running into him being something similar to colliding with a brick wall.

When he opened the door, she was shocked. The room was large enough to be equipped with a standard running track surrounding the perimeter, with a boxing ring, several weight-lifting machines, a row of punching bags hanging from the ceiling, and multiple other contraptions that she assumed were for improving one's gymnastics and agility skills concentrated in the center of it.

And it was empty.

He spoke to her again as they walked into the room together.

"Figured you wouldn't wanna train with the other jackasses watching."

She said something extremely intelligent like, "Uh-huh," as she looked around the room, mouth slightly agape, noticing the things that she had missed during her initial observation, like the racks of deadly weapons lining the walls.

He noticed and scoffed, gripping her upper arm firmly and pulling her towards the center of the room with him, stopping when he reached the row of punching bags.

"Target practice is for later. We're focusing on hand-to-hand combat today."

He let go of her arm and looked her up and down. His dark blue eyes were unsettling, and she felt slightly self conscious as his gaze lingered on her face for slightly longer than any other part of her body before looking away again.

"You're pretty small. If you get jumped, you're dead."

"They said I was fast," she muttered, brushing her long, wavy dark hair out of her face.

"How fast?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Dunno," she said, uncertainty written on her face, "I think they said that my average mile time is three minutes."

"Go ahead and take a lap for me."

He didn't believe her. It almost seemed too good to be true. She obliged, and before he knew it, she was back, standing in front of him. No sweat, no panting. It had to have taken less than a minute.

"What's your name?" he asked, borderline itching with excitement.

"Nineteen." she said, mouth twisting bitterly. "Like, Subject 19."

"So, you're not a recruit." _Trump card._

"Nope." she was fidgety and brief with her responses and apparently unable to keep physically still.

The Soldier couldn't believe his luck. Nineteen obviously wasn't here out of her own free will, and with that came the option to recruit her for his own cause. He wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't already begun to hate HYDRA on her own accord. Under his training, that hatred would grow. Before, it had been a question of _if_ he would be able to carry out his plan or not. Now, the question was simply a matter of _when_.

"What you don't have in strength, you can make up for with speed." he was pacing around her now, "I'm gonna throw a couple punches at you. Dodge them, block them, do whatever you need to. But don't run away, or you're lifting weights for the next five hours. Your goal is to hit me at some point, get it?"

"Yes, sir." she said lamely.

He watched her for a few more moments before going in with a right hook. She darted out of the way just in time before he threw another punch at her, followed by an uppercut. She dodged them again. Barely. He threw another combination of hits at her, one of them slightly clipping her chin. She cursed out of pain, and he used that distraction to send another series of punches her way. She blocked one this time, barely. They carried on like that for a while, with him throwing punches her way and her dodging most of them.

"Try to hit me." he growled, sending a left hook towards her face. She yelped and ducked under his fist, simultaneously aiming a punch towards his groin. It never landed. He caught her fist in his metal one, and looked down at her, staring daggers.

"Don't you _dare_ start going for cheap shots."

"You told me to hit you!" she said, panting and slightly flushed, her hazel eyes widening in horror as she realized exactly which area she had been going for.

"Yeah, not _there_!" he looked affronted, as if he couldn't believe she had the nerve.

"I panicked, okay? I'm sorry!"

He let go of her fist and she realized he was laughing. Nothing drastic, just a low chuckle.

"Don't laugh at me!" she cried, blushing furiously. "I-I didn't mean to, I've never really fought anyone before, oh _God_ , please don't kill me!"

"You're the first person I've trained in years, and you go straight in for the dick-punch." He let out a sound between a laugh and a snort. "Typical."

"What? You've never been hit…" she didn't finish her sentence.

"No, actually, believe it or not. Most of the men I fight don't tend to go for that area. I guess it's a mutual respect thing."

She was frantically brushing wisps of her hair out of her face again, "Well, I won't do it again, I swear."

"Relax. Do it to anyone you're in a real fight with. Just not me, preferably," he said before openly staring at the woman fighting a losing battle with her hair in front of him. "Don't you have something to tie that up with?"

Nineteen looked at him from behind her coffee-colored hair that swirled around her face like a maelstrom.

"No."

The Soldier rolled his eyes. "Un- _fucking_ -believable... this place… I swear," he muttered to himself as he freed his own hair from the knot on the back of his head, tossing the rubber band down to the young woman who took it gratefully, piling her hair on top of her head in a messy bun.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Let's go again. No cheap shots this time."

* * *

 **a/n: I'm on an updating roll. Please _please please please_ drop a review if you like it so far. **


	4. Chapter 4

**a/n: italics are flashbacks!**

 **also, I forgot to put the _disclaimer in the first few chapters so here it is now marvel pls don't kill me:_ If I owned the rights to Marvel, it would be a lot easier to pay rent on my shitty apartment. I own Nineteen though...**

* * *

 ** _ONE MONTH LATER_**

It was funny, she thought as she paced the perimeter of her cell anxiously, how plans so carefully crafted, plans that seemed so immaculate and infallible to the last detail, still had the undeniable potential to fail.

During her musings, she eventually figured out that thought would have been obvious to most people.

The Soldier had spilled his plan to her only a short week ago. At least, she figured it was a week. After he had revealed the intent for his suicide mission, she'd suffered through seven anxiety ridden and sleepless nights. For reasons still somewhat unfathomable to her, she'd agreed to help him. Maybe death wishes were contagious. Maybe she didn't know better. Throughout the time she had spent biding her time as HYDRA's personal lab rat, she had learned that she was not the most complacent and tractable of creatures by nature, so perhaps the thought of senseless, utterly mad, and idealistic rebellion excited her.

* * *

 _They always trained alone, as it had become the norm._

 _The one and only time The Soldier had attempted to introduce Nineteen into training with the other men had ended in nothing short of disaster. The lascivious and depraved commentary that the other HYDRA agents had mercilessly thrown her way had visibly shaken and upset the young woman to the point where her already inconsistent fighting skills had worsened, and she undeniably suffered during their sparring session, remaining uncharacteristically rooted to the spot, shaking and red faced from a combination of anger and embarrassment. If he had been any other HYDRA agent, he would have followed Pierce's direct instructions to not go easy on her, and forced her to remain in the room, subject to their sneers and venomous taunts._

 _But he couldn't remember the last time he had completely followed one of Pierce's orders._

 _He had cultivated a specific skill, dedicated to finding loopholes in even the most benign of situations._

 _So they'd returned back to Training Room 1, where neither of them spoke of the incident, but the relentless attacks Nineteen threw at him not only surprised The Soldier, but sent him a clear message of resentment._

 _Her picture certainly didn't appear in the dictionary next to the word, "spitfire," but she also wasn't by any means a weakling._

 _She was driven by her emotions. Her best moments in combat were shown when she was either frightened or furious, and due to that simple fact, she would never and could never be the asset HYDRA desired._

 _The Soldier refused to let them break her. Not out of any particular care for her, but due to the fact that she was simply too valuable to him to let go of._

 _He wouldn't turn her into a weapon. He'd turn her into a partner._

 _Ironically, he typically preferred to work alone._

 _During one of their later training sessions, they were sparring as per usual, and he'd had her pinned on the ground when she'd suddenly reversed the pin, flipping the two of them over with a grunt of effort, resulting in her straddling his torso, pinning his arms down by his head with her knees, and wrapping her hands around his throat. Quickly. Almost impressing him. He'd allowed the ghost of a smirk to etch its way onto his face before bucking his hips and sending her flying over his head with sheer brute force. It had taken The Soldier less than a second to remove her from on top of him, but the point was there. Nineteen had successfully managed to get him into a hold that on a normal opponent, would otherwise be lethal._

 _She had learned quickly in the past month, picking up skills in not only hand-to-hand combat, but weapons as well, firing a gun and throwing a knife for the first time with surprising skill. Just as he had._

 _They'd gotten to their feet, and she'd daringly shot him a disgruntled look before he was over by her side, quick as a whip._

 _She all but withered under The Soldier's cold, scrutinizing stare, choosing instead to fidget about restlessly as she avoided any long periods of eye contact. The man in front of her was tall, well built, and undoubtedly handsome, but he radiated nothing but lethal power, and the constant absence of warmth in his features served as a consistent reminder to Nineteen that he was not one to agitate._

 _He was always civil, with a cynical and warped sense of humor, yet, a good instructor, strangely patient, and always willing to help Nineteen better herself, but never anything that could have been mistaken as friendly._

" _Why are you here?"_

 _His question had surprised her. A confused frown had flickered across her features, and she steeled her nerves, looking him in the eye before responding._

" _Training."_

 _Nineteen hadn't meant to sound like a smart-ass, but realized that she did a nanosecond too late._

 _The Soldier gave her a peevish look before rephrasing his question._

" _I meant here," he gestured wildly around the room with his metal arm. "As in this entire facility. As in with HYDRA."_

 _She stared blankly at him. Whether it was out of confusion or disbelief, she wasn't exactly sure. Had he not been listening when Alexander Pierce was giving his never ending speech to all of his men that very first day in the other training room? The speech that had ended in Pierce addressing The Soldier directly, and informing him that she was his new responsibility, whether he liked it or not?_

" _I can't exactly walk out of the front doors and leave…?" Her statement was phrased as if it were a question, sending a flicker of irritation throughout The Soldier's mind._

 _He began to pace around her in a circle, never taking his shrewd gaze off of her. She suddenly felt an odd sense of kinship with prey animals, such as lambs, flies, and antelope._

" _But if you could, would you?"_

 _It was a loaded question. If she told the truth, he would probably report her answer directly to Alexander Pierce, who would in turn, have her killed, or worse, have the scientists run more tests on her as a form of torture. If she lied, she had the funny feeling that her life would consist of more than just spending her days in an empty training room. A vision of brutal field missions, murder, assassination plots, and forced integration with other agents crossed her mind, and there was no stopping the fear that coursed through her veins afterwards._

 _So she remained silent._

 _The Soldier cursed in a language that she somehow recognized as Russian, before addressing her again._

" _Do I need to repeat myself?"_

 _He stopped pacing and walked closer to her, his blue eyes boring down into her hazel ones mercilessly. Her heart was overworking itself into a frantic crescendo, and he leaned forward slightly, putting himself at her eye level._

 _His voice was quiet, barely a whisper, but the volume had nothing to do with the severity of his tone._

" _I want these fuckers to burn. And I know you do too."_

 _He stepped away from her but didn't fail to notice the shock and fear in her eyes be replaced with an odd glint that he recognized as determination._

 _The Soldier's words were being uttered at a normal decibel now._

" _I know you do," he had repeated himself. "I saw that hatred in your eyes the day I met you. You can't hide it. It's impossible for you. And yet, you spend your lucid hours doing absolutely nothing. When you're not here with me, you're sitting pretty in that cell doing nothing but wasting your own time. Hating something that you think you can't change."_

 _Nineteen was about to open her mouth and offer him some creative feedback, but her retort was cut short._

" _I bet you haven't even thought about getting yourself out of here. No escape plan. No nothing. But that's why I'm here."_

 _He was pacing again._

" _What are you saying?" She growled. He could still be on HYDRA's side, after all. Better to feign ignorance than to immediately believe the words spewing out of his mouth, regardless of how true they might've been._

" _These people are idiots when it comes to security. Every bit of information on this organization- every file, and every piece of data, every plan they have in the works, no matter how miniscule- is backed up onto one computer in this building. We put that information onto a drive, we get it to a government somewhere, anywhere, and this entire organization that's terrorized the world for the past century goes down in flames."_

 _The shock was back on her face._

" _You are insane," she decided, backing away from him slowly. "They'll kill us before we get within twenty feet of it."_

" _No." he stated simply. "They'll kill us if they catch us."_

 _Nineteen nodded slowly, deciding it was better to play along with his game. He was clearly deranged beyond repair, HYDRA must've messed around with his brain too long._

" _Okay. Let's say that somehow this suicide mission works. How are we supposed to get any sort of government to believe us? They'll think we're crazy. I think you're_ _crazy!"_

" _Believe me, if we show up anywhere at all with information on HYDRA, they'll have no choice but to take us seriously. It's a matter of international security. Trust me, I've thought about this long and hard."_

 _Nineteen stared at The Soldier incredulously, unable to believe what she was hearing. The man that was supposed to be HYDRA's Number One soldier, a brutal killing machine, was standing in front of her ranting like a madman, hell-bent on destroying the one organization that had created him. She wondered what one had to go through in order to become this rancorous and malignant, but upon thinking twice about the potential answers to her questions, decided she didn't really want to know after all._

" _Correct me if I'm wrong," she said, attempting to paraphrase his words to save her own sanity, and speak up on her end before he managed to turn their conversation even further south than she was imagining, "You want me... and you... you want us to somehow gather up a century's worth of information on HYDRA, escape from this facility with our lives, and get it into the hands of the people running an entire country of our choice? Alive? When I don't even know your name, nor what to call you? Also, did you miss the part where we fucking die? Because it sounds to me like you did!"_

" _We won't die. And I don't even know my name. If I don't know it, neither do you."_

 _She had ignored the last part of his sentence._

" _How do you know?"_

 _She was all but yelling at this point, eyes darting around wildly. He noticed that she had begun pacing as well, in tight circles, anxiety ruling her body language._

" _Is this even safe to talk about here? How do you know they're not listening? We'll be murdered in our beds!"_

" _You need to calm down. Your screeching will get us killed before anything else."_

" _Calm down? Calm_ _ **down**_ _?" she jabbed her finger towards his face. "Don't you dare tell me to calm down! I'm completely calm! You're insane!"_

 _The Soldier sighed, schooling his features into a practiced blank expression before walking over to her and gripping the tops of her arms firmly, holding her in place._

" _Look, are you with me or not?" he asked._

 _It took her a while to respond, and the words coming from Nineteen's mouth were not even close to what he had expected._

" _I'm always cold and I can't stop moving."_

 _Her voice was blase, almost hollow, and she had a strange look in her hazel eyes. This time, it was not something The Soldier recognized._

 _He felt something along the lines of confusion after her odd statement, and whatever it was must've written itself on his face._

 _She clarified._

" _After what they did to me here. After they gave me that serum… I'm always cold now... and I can't stop moving. It hurts, I fucking hate it, and I want them to pay for it."_

 _She pulled herself out of his grip._

" _So I guess I'm with you."_

* * *

Nineteen didn't know she was capable of such noble decisions. Frankly, before The Soldier had come along and planted the seeds of rebellion into her brain, she thought she would've spent the rest of her life in her cell, a slave to HYDRA, studied and overworked until her scientifically modified DNA unraveled itself. But now, she was on a mission for the greater good of humanity. Maybe. In actuality, The Soldier's plan seemed entirely based on revenge. She was okay with that.

The Soldier had provided her with a breakdown of his plan, and the steps seemed simple in theory. He would come retrieve her from her cell late at night the next day under the guise of training her on the utilization of infrared weapons. Such weapons obviously could only be used at night, making it a perfect alibi for their true intentions. HYDRA surprisingly gave him more free reign than she was ever allowed, but that wasn't saying much. Whilst on their ways to their alleged training spot, they would undoubtedly pass a guard or an orderly in one of the corridors. Using her enhanced speed, Nineteen would somehow manage to swipe their badge, which would grant them access to every room in the building.

From then on began their mission to reach the building's central computer was in action, based purely on the assumption that they weren't executed due to suspicion of conspiracy the next morning.

A part of her thought the two of them could possibly pull it off after all.

Death wishes certainly did seem to be contagious.

* * *

 **a/n: so yay, there's chapter four. I'm gonna take this opportunity to clear some stuff up regarding this story (in case anyone was curious) one, it IS an AU of sorts, meaning things will (obviously) be different than canon, and characters will undoubtedly be a bit ooc. please don't kill me. two, I know there's a lot of she/her and he/him, regarding how I address the characters in this story, but I promise you there's a reason for this, and yes, there will be name usage in the future. three, if anyone's confused about Nineteen's character, I'm trying to make it to where the reader discovers who Nineteen is while she herself is doing so like personality wise and stuff... idk I thought it was clever or something...but idk if it's working out or not lmao. also, the beginning of this story was the hardest to write, but once Bucky and Nineteen are out of HYDRA, it'll pick up. I promise! I've got big plans for this fic hahahhahahaha. as always, please please please don't hesitate to drop me a review! they're literally like my crack and encourage me to update quickly. also I love feedback. shouts out to gamerchic for being the first reviewer! I hope this story still interests you after this chapter, lmao.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Clearly still too broke to own Marvel.**

* * *

They were not murdered in their beds. Or at least, she wasn't.

Nineteen woke the next day after a pitiful two hours of sleep with a pounding headache, dry mouth, and a pit in her stomach. Apparently, the serum that she had been injected with did nothing to combat the general effects of sleep deprivation.

While she was not convinced that The Soldier still possessed one-hundred percent of his sanity, she was, on the other hand, convinced that their plan was undoubtedly going to be a Very Bad Idea.

But she was alive.

Maybe HYDRA was just waiting to kill her after she had finished breakfast.

Words couldn't describe how nervous she was.

When breakfast didn't come, but The Soldier did, she realized that something had definitely gone wrong.

She had remained in bed all morning, unusually still, and alone with her thoughts. There was no way they were going to pull this off.

Surprisingly, the wall had slid open and there he stood, unannounced, dressed differently than she had ever seen him before, with a handful of weapons strapped to various parts of his body and a slightly frantic look in his eyes.

"We need to go. Now."

His urgent tone sent Nineteen's already high levels of anxiety skyrocketing. She sensed his distress and her brain filled itself with a thousand questions about what prompted The Soldier to make such an uncharacteristically impulsive and hasty decision. The look of sheer horror and confusion that had undoubtedly made its way onto her face seemed to speak volumes to him, allowing him to answer her questions without her saying a single word.

"The plan's changing," he said with finality. "We need to go. _Right now._ "

She felt ill as time slowed down. His original carefully thought out and almost immaculate plan was already near impossible to pull of as it was, but now they were completely diverting from it. Her mind raced and her thoughts were battling with each other over which one would gain prevalence, but one question stood out over all the others. _What happened?_

"Okay…" she muttered as she threw her hair up into a ponytail and shoved her feet into her boots, still unable to form coherent sentences.

His patience waned. Out of all of the people in the world, she was moving too slowly for him.

"You," he said roughly, gripping her upper arm hard enough to bruise and all but yanking her out the cell, "fucking come _on_!"

She had never had high hopes for any sort of rescue, nor wasted her time wishing for an escape from HYDRA's facility before he'd proposed his plan to her, and now, with the panic in his eyes and the absolute terror in his voice, she was certain of one thing.

Their plan had failed before it had even begun, and this was no rescue mission, nor wish come true for her sake. This was an escape.

* * *

He kept up with her, but barely.

Fear had put down its sinister roots into Nineteen's brain, working its way through the previously muddled thoughts that clouded her mind, blazing a trail through her circulatory system, muscles, and bones, and allowing her to run. Heedless, legs working in overtime, feet pounding against the tile floors. She wasn't simply afraid for her life. She was utterly terrified.

The Soldier was barely a step behind her the entire time as they raced through corridor after corridor. He spoke only to give her brief directions. Left. Straight. Right. It would have made much more sense if their roles were reversed and she was following his lead, but the fear coursing through her veins made it impossible for her to slow down. Her panicked brain hadn't even recognized it as an option.

 _Fight or flight._

That phrase played in her mind on a constant loop. She wasn't sure where it had come from, or where she had ever heard it before, but it seemed incredibly fitting for their current situation.

Based on the way The Soldier had been acting, she had expected the two of them to be met with a firing squad of eager HYDRA agents as soon as they had left her cell, but instead they were met with no response. The hallways were eerily quiet and still, absent of the typical characters that often traversed throughout them on a normal day. A small part of her dared to hope that he had taken some sort of precautionary action and created a diversion somewhere else in the facility, but the odds were definitely stacked against that scenario.

She gulped air to soothe the foreign burning sensation in her lungs.

They reached a literal fork in the road that yielded to only two options. Left or right.

"Go right." There was a miniscule hint of fatigue in his voice.

She obliged, and when she saw the black garbed and heavily armed individuals waiting at the end of the hallway, goosebumps perforated her skin and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

" _Shit._ "

His voice came from behind her as they both skidded to a stop, looking frantically in both directions and seeing more men at the other end of the hallway as they were met with an army eager to perform. Some of the HYDRA agents wore smirks on their faces, and the hallway echoed with the sound of multiple guns cocking.

They were so _fucked_.

The Soldier didn't hesitate. He tossed her two handguns and gave her simple orders without missing a beat.

"You take left. I'll take right. Watch each other's backs."

* * *

The hallway exploded into utter chaos around them.

Nineteen's brain knew enough to know that waiting meant death, so she ran towards the HYDRA agents at full speed, reaching the men before most of them even had the chance to fire their guns.

The ones that did just so happened to miss her. Whether it was by a stroke of luck or the grace of God, she didn't know.

Her body had gone on autopilot. The survival skills that The Soldier had relentlessly drilled her in had successfully taken over, allowing her to shoot at them from point blank range, making them moderately easy targets. Her bullets were gone. Twelve of the men were down.

The remaining six had gotten over the shock that had resulted from witnessing her speed, and now she had six expertly trained men aiming semi-automatics at her.

 _Fucking wonderful._

The world slowed down, and she saw everything with inhuman clarity. The singed-hair smell of gunpowder heavily perfumed the air, along with traces of other smells like sweat and blood. If she concentrated enough, she could spot the bullets flying through the air, all heading directly towards her.

 _Think._

Quick as lightning, she surveyed their attacks. The bullets were heavily concentrated towards her left side, likely aiming for her heart that was currently beating a frantic rhythm in her chest. The HYDRA agents were standing shoulder to shoulder in a line. She didn't take time to breathe as she sprinted to the right in a wide arc, reaching the first agent in line in merely seconds.

There was a searing pain in her left shoulder, and she could almost feel her individual cells being ripped apart as a bullet grazed her.

It slowed her down, but she continued with her original plan as she slammed into the agent with her full body weight, sending the two of them falling to the ground, hard, snapping his neck on impact.

It turned out to be a deadly mistake, she realized. The next thing she was aware of feeling next was pain. It exploded everywhere from hard kicks, brutal punches, and what could only have been described as a white hot burning sensation in her side. Only after she became aware of the wetness soaking into her tank top in the same area, did her mind register the fact that she had been stabbed.

The remaining agents were trying to pull her off of their dead comrade. One succeeded, but Nineteen had been rendered incapable of making rational decisions as she weakly tackled him and sunk her teeth into his arm, hard, refusing to let go even after the bitter and metallic taste of his blood had spread throughout her mouth.

He screamed in pain, and shook his arm violently, but she held fast, jaws stretched around the bone in his wrist.

She was vaguely aware of him alternating between grabbing handfuls of her hair and attempting to rip her off of him and him raining down hard punches on her ears, her head, her neck- anywhere he could reach, really.

In the midst of it all, she heard a muffled whimpering sound.

She would later realize that it had been coming from her.

The edges of her vision darkened, and a wave of nausea rolled throughout her body. The other agents were still attacking her. Mercilessly. They could have shot her and ended everything quickly, but they had obviously decided against it. They enjoyed her pain.

She was their target. She would die here.

She didn't know how much longer she would be able to hold on. The black that tinged the edges of her vision was beginning to spread, and a feeling of lightheadedness began to accompany the nausea.

She wondered how The Soldier was doing.

Five gunshots rang out, and the pain ceased. As the five agents each crumpled to the ground with a bullet buried into each of their brains, she heard a familiar voice alternating between spewing profanity and forming fragments of sentences.

"You _idiot_ ," an extremely enraged Winter Soldier was hissing as he carelessly kicked aside the corpses that had been attacking her moments ago, before pulling her to her feet and catching her as she stumbled into his chest, "Did I teach you fucking _nothing_?"

* * *

 **a/n: Their plan epically failed for reasons that are soon to be discovered and Nineteen got the shit kicked out of her, but... YOU GUYS, WE ARE SO CLOSE TO GETTING BUCKY AND HOMEGIRL OUT OF HYDRA, IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY. I'M SO EXCITED. That means that this story will FINALLY pick up.**

 **ALSO, Major thanks to gamerchic and WriterGirl1198 for reviewing! y'all are awesome!**

 **More thanks for the people that have favorited and followed this story as well!**


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